1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally pertains to test forms for use with test scoring apparatus of the type for sensing the presence of indicia in answer indication areas on the test form; and specifically provides an improvement to such test forms of this type as have timing mark columns positioned in relation to the answer indication areas to time the sensing of each answer indication area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical of this class of test forms is the form described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,440 to Hanson et al. The form described therein is useful with a test scoring apparatus containing photoelectric sensing apparatus of the type described in the Hanson et al. patent.
This test form has the following features: (a) a generally rectangular shaped sheet of paper or like material having longitudinal and transverse axes, and at least one generally straight edge parallel with one of said axes, the straight edge providing a reference edge for guiding the movement of the paper through the sensing apparatus; (b) a series of question locations indicated on the sheet of paper with each question location having a number of answer indication areas indicated on the sheet in which indicia can be entered, said number of answer indication areas of each question location being spaced to form transverse rows generally perpendicular to the straight edge of the sheet and/or being spaced to form longitudinal columns generally parallel with the straight edge of the sheet, and the series of question locations being spaced with answer indication areas therein being aligned with similar answer indication areas of other question locations to form longitudinal columns generally parallel with the straight edge of the sheet; and (c) a timing mark column generally parallel to the straight edge of the sheet containing a plurality of timing marks, with one of the timing marks being positioned in relation to each row of answer indication areas to time the sensing of each answer indication area.
This test form is limited in the scope of its application, however, in that the longitudinal dimensions of the answer indication areas are approximately one millimeter; which dimension is so small that very young students and persons of less proficient motor skills have experienced difficulty in accurately entering indicia in the answer indication areas to assure reliable sensing thereof by the sensing apparatus. Also, answer indication areas of such small size do not enable the preparation of a species of testing format that is preferred by educators for presentation to very young students, wherein the various answer choices (rather than a mere symbol indicative of the answer choice) are contained within the plurality of answer indication areas at each question location. Such a format is illustrated in FIG. 1 of the Drawing.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned limitations, test forms having such an enlarged answer indication format heretofore have not been adopted for use with test scoring apparatus, or vice versa. Perhaps, this is because of the fact that in order for a test form to be useful with a particular test scoring apparatus (the Model 550 Electronic Test Scorer sold by Minnesota Datronics Inc., Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.) that has been widely distributed and presently is being used in many school systems, the test form must contain at least a given number of timing marks in the timing mark column, and the timing marks must be separated from one another by at least approximately 5 millimeters. For a test form having enlarged answer indication areas, not as many such areas can be included along the longitudinal dimension of a standard size sheet (which is approximately 35 centimeters). Thus the test form would contain more timing marks than are needed; and because the timing marks must be separated by at least 5 millimeters they must be spread out over the longitudinal dimension of the sheet, whereby the unneeded timing marks cannot be merely crowded into one small region that is not aligned with any of the answer indication areas. In view of these considerations the test form would have to contain extra space containing only the timing marks and/or some answer indication areas would have to have more than one timing mark aligned therewith, whereby the test scoring apparatus could be enabled to respond more than once to a single indicia in a single answer indication area.